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A fair amount of information on MLP books was posted by EW (once again). Pictured above is a punch-out trading card bundled with Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, while they also have a gallery containing images from The Elements of Harmony (due in June), a guidebook for the series, the Mini Pony Collector’s Guide (due in October), which comes with an exclusive blind bag figurine pictured in the gallery, and Under the Sparkling Sea.

So, the exclusive bonus figure included with the book is just a Pinkie Pie recolor? It’s a nice recolor, admittedly, but still…

Shiek927

Reading up on “Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell” I’m not sure if it counts as canon, or how canon the books and comics are…I imagine, when it comes to being canon, it’s pretty far down on the misc category, and probably won’t be reflected within the show, if at all.

There is a review, which is essentially a brief summery, on the Amazon page from which you can buy it….What do I think of it from the sound of it?

Well, firstly…good grief, Cadence’s history is getting messier and messier, or maybe not necessarily but they are now trying to actively make her history for the first time, instead of going around it. For instance, Twilight referred to her as a “Unicorn” during the flashbacks in the Wedding episodes, even though she plainly and hilariously was NOT at the time — though I suspect that has more to do with the show shying away from labeling the Celestia’s race of beings, even though the fans have primarily been using “Alicorn” for ages (it wasn’t until “Alicorn Amulet” that the first word was even brought up) It’s also doubly ironic that Cadence was born a Pegasus, in an Earth Pony village when, again, the show referred to her as a Unicorn…even though she was an Alicorn >_<. The idea of whether or not you like her as someone who 'grew' into the role, rather then always was, is also something subjective.

So yes, there is a lot of inconsistency on that department, which leads to me believe we are supposed to retcon, or otherwise ignore, those little things since it now seems that Cadence's history is now actively being worked on (assuming this whole book is canon in the first place). To make an example, it's plain, with her history here, that the writer was trying to work with this new change in direction the show is going, with the whole "earning" the role of Princess (assuming you even like what Meghan Mccarthy said in the first place, which a lot of people didn't and tore it apart), which basically makes up this book in the first place…going further into Cadence's history and, indirectly, explaining how pony's could become Alicorn's in the first place. Is it perfect? It's up to you, though I could perfectly understand why it's not at all…..much of it has to do with if you like the changes in the first place: if you even like this episode, or Meghan's reasoning in the EW magazine (which I personally was iffy about, even though I believed, at the time, that people shouldn't have dissected her words so much) The rest…I don't know – the impression I get reading this review/synopsis, is a pretty chaotic one, and again, I think it goes back to being forced to cope with the massive change in the narrative — the mechanics of Twilight's change and what it means to even be an Alicorn, nevermind Cadence who is another big thing entirely. It could also be that this one little book tried to tackle far too much, in such a small package.

The mention of Gilda also seemed abrupt…but I think what I honestly intrigued me the most from this synopsis, is that bit about Twilight's brief "regression"….that maybe Alicorn's could lose their power, and status as one, if people no longer believed in them or they no longer loved "their little ponies" – there is only so much we can take from this review without just reading the book ourselves, but it intrigued me…of course, tying that in with the canon is something else – for example, if Alicorn's lose strength with their friendships are strained, how does Luna fit into that? She became corrupted when she felt ponies didn't appreciate her night, not necessarily regressed…then again, she was much smaller in stature in Episode 2, though that may have been because of the Elements of Harmony. It could be that this "regression" only applies to Twilight, given the emphasis on Friendship and that's most likely what she stands for as a Princess…that all Alicorns gain power from what they stand for, and when Twilight's friendships were getting strained, she began to lose power.

I don't know, it's certainly worth thinking about and really makes me think of the same thing I got from Magical Mystery Cure in the first place…what I got from when I learned all of these massive Alicorn changes were happening in the first place: The less I think about it, the better….the problem I have with that mentality, is that it's the exact opposite of, well, so much….of what drew adults to this show in the first place — you can argue that this show was also very flimsy on the details, which enabled both the show writers, and fanfic writers, to develop their own elaborate head-canons and justify how the show writers could make massive changes to the characters or the show (because they were hardly developed in the first place – Discord went from being a malevolent chaos god to misunderstood: How could they get away with that? Easy, because he was only shown one time, remember?), which we may love or hate….that being said, Bronies love the show for the depth they feel it has, and for the characters….that, to enjoy the changes the canon is going through, you basically have to turn your brain off and not dig deep for all the details…it's not really an appealing idea.

Overall though, this book sounds interesting….Will it be canon, within the show? I sincerely doubt it…the show, as we all expect, is going to delve into Alicorns, Twilight and all the rest their own way – which probably makes this story just a curious side-story to read…unless of course, this IS a book adaptation of the first episodes of Season 4, in which case, it basically is a spoiler for the opening…I doubt that though – the writer is someone named GM Berrow: unless there is something somewhere that says the original writer was someone in the show, and he had permission to adapt it into a short little book, I think we can take this as un-canon.

Anonymous

The author, who is a SHE, was in talks with the show staff when writing the book, primarily Meghan. The only thing that was not written when the book was being done was Magic Duel and Games.Ponies Play.

Shiek927

….If that is really the case, than can we take it as a given that this really WILL be reflected in the show? That this is canon, and this could very well the opening to Season 4? :O

Anonymous

What we see in the show is show canon. Tons of this toy/outside material produced only by Hasbro has had a ton of oddball things that would totally wreck show canon if it were in the same universe, so until it actually airs, I would not speculate about it too much.

Shiek927

That’s basically what I felt, and wrote at the top of my giant post – that, if we’re arguing canon, things like books and comics and so on are pretty much on the bottom. Odds are, this will remain a curious little side-story, but who knows….maybe it will be reflected in S4 after all – I guess we’ll see when it airs.